This blog is all about Rotherhithe, past and present. The main themes are heritage, wildlife and news items that may be of interest to local residents. If you have any questions or would like to comment or ask me to cover any particular topic you can email me at andie [at] rotherhitheblog.co.uk. I am also on Twitter @AndieByrnes

Sunday, December 13, 2015

A couple of pics taken in bright sunshine against an ominous sky last Monday 7th on Greenland Pier. A remarkable contrast of lights and colours. The red derrick is in Rotherhithe, and under threat of demolition, and the other photos are of course Canary Wharf.

Friday, December 11, 2015

Graffiti is amongst the crudest of all forms of self expression, and being anonymous is always an act of the weak-minded. It is not the first time that the Michael Rizzello sculpture has been smeared with graffiti, although heaven knows why, as it is not a political monument.

For those unfamiliar with it, it is a horizontal relief sculpture showing the layout of the docks in 1896, the year that the Commercial Dock Company and the Surrey Grand Canal and Docks Company amalgamated to become the Surrey Commercial Dock Company. It was made by Michael Rizzello O.B.E. in 1989, and was commissioned by the London
Dockland Development Corporation. A bas-relief, it is made of bronze and
is mounted on a granite base. One of the charms of the map is that when there has
been rainfall each of the docks and channels fills with rainfall. Each of the docks is
clearly labeled so if
you know where Greenland Dock and South Dock are located in the real
world it becomes quite easy to use the Stave Hill map to locate where
other docks and ponds would have been. I can lose track of time looking
at it because the detail is so fascinating.

The graffiti states "you're a slave to all of this." To what, precisely? To the ecological park, to the woodland, to the wildlife that lives there? A different message was painted on the plinth in July 2008, but the effect is the same: ugly defacement of a much-loved local landmark with absolutely no benefit to anyone, least of all the idiot who sprayed it there.

The Chair of the Friends of Russia Dock Woodland, Steve Cornish, has written to Southwark Council asking that the graffiti be removed as soon as possible. In 2008 it took weeks for it to be removed. Hopefully things have been improved since then.

Stuart Rankin, who has written many local histories of Rotherhithe, has made the following title available on his website: The Lure and Lore of London’s River.
By A.G. Linney. Sampson Low, Marston & Co. Ltd. c.1933.
Download price £3.95 (5p per download is made to the Help the Heroes charity).

I have this book. It took me ages to track down a second hand copy, and it is an absolute delight. Linney writes in a wonderfully evocative style, bringing all he sees and all his personal encounters to life.

Here's Stuart's description on the British Transport Treasures website:

The Lure and Lore of London’s River. By A.G. Linney. Sampson Low, Marston & Co. Ltd. nd. but c.1933. Hardback book black cloth binding, 9”x 6”, pp. 242, full page B&W frontispiece, 47 B&W half tone photos mainly by the author. Many of the pictures are rather small but nonetheless full of interest like the Surrey Entrance Lock, pinpointing the site of the old entrance to the Grand Surrey Canal. There are 8 pages of sketch maps showing the reaches of the Thames. Linney has particularly good Chapters on Rotherhithe and Limehouse
waterfronts and the tribulations of the Lockmaster at Surrey Entrance
Lock in the 1860s. At the time Linney was writing the Thames was
beginning to change with more modern industries springing up and
spreading down river, but there were still the occasional “tall ships”
bringing in cargoes from far away and the river was still thronged with
the characteristic Thames sailing barges which could navigate on a
length of damp flannel up a myriad of creeks and inlets. He is one of
those companionable authors whom I would very much have liked to have
met “Lure and Lore” like “Peep Show” has many odd facts and anecdotes
which I have not seen elsewhere other than in some more recent
publications which obviously got them from these.

Sunday, December 6, 2015

During the Second World War South Dock's lock was badly damaged and could no longer be used for access from the Thames.
As a strategic commercial target the docks had been targeted by German
bombers and this was only one of many dock structures to be devastated. South Dock and Greenland Dock had independent lock entrances because they had been owned by separate dock companies, but when the two docks became part of the same company a cut was created to link the two, so access to South Dock was still possible via
the Greenland Dock lock entrance. However, in 1944 there was a pressing need for dry docks for the construction of Mulberry Harbours, so the decision was made to cut off South Dock from Greenland Dock, to ready it for the construction of concrete sections of Mulberry units for the armed forces.

Schematic of main components of theArromanches Mulberry Harbour, from the Combined Operations Command website

So what were Mulberry Harbours and why were they so important? "Mulberries" were designed to meet a logistical problem to an assault on the Normandy beaches that would make a profound difference to the outcome of the war. In 1942 the British attacked the heavily fortified town of Dieppe and were turned back. But if British troops were to be landed in France, some part of the French coast would have to be breached, and it was decided that the beaches of Normandy would be the best option. But there were two problems. First, any invasion would require huge numbers of men and heavy equipment, and with no infrastructure in place to receive, unload, process and supply the invasion, and the difficulties inherent in capturing a suitable port posted a potentially massive problem. Second, troops and supplies were to be landed directly on the beaches but the coastline of Normandy featured long and shallow inclines, meaning that at low tide boats could not approach near enough to the shore to offload their cargoes. But these was the sort of problems that the armed forces were expert at solving. Churchill had had a similar idea in 1917 to cope with the capture of two islands in the Danish-Dutch seas, but the man usually credited with the idea of the Mulberry Harbours is Hugh Iorys Hughes whose brother Commodore John Hughes-Hallet presented it to the Navy. Whoever it was who came up with the idea, it was concluded that if a harbour could not be captured, then a harbour should be built, transported and then installed wherever it was needed. These were the Mulberry Harbours.

Mulberry Harbours were
modular units which, when assembled, could be used to create temporary
harbours along the Normandy coast. They consisted of pier-heads (known as "spud-pontoons"), piers ("whales"), inter-linked concrete pontoons "beetles"), caissons to form breakwaters ("phoenixes") and in-shore shelters provided by ships forming a barrier (gooseberries). There is a brilliant description of how all these elements fit together on Chris Bridges's "Mulberries and Gooseberries" page, together with some super illustrations. Floating
pontoons were placed at 80ft intervals between the pier-head (where
boats would dock) and the beach and carried the 80ft-long piers (whales)
that formed floating roads that allowed people and cargo to be unloaded
onto the shore. As the tide raised and fell, so too did the floating
moorings, allowing ships to moor and offload, even at low tide. 146 caissons were required to form 9.5kms of breakwater to protect both the piers and the ships, each 60 metres long, 18 metres high and 15 metres wide. The breakwaters formed by Phoenix units, more or less parallel to the piers, and the sheltering barrier of ships called gooseberries formed protecting arms to emulate a true harbour.

After various experimental prototypes were tested, two Mulberries were assembled for deployment: Mulberry A at Omaha beach, and Mulberry B at Arromanches, each with an intended capacity of 7000 tons of vehicles and supplies a day.

Artist's impression of a Phoenix caisson, showing hwthey were shaped to resemble lighters. From the war44.com website

Different parts of the Mulberry Harbours were manufactured in different places (much as the Airbus is today), transported to a distribution hub and were later assembled where they were needed. This was because of the sheer amount of work involved, described evocatively on the Combined Operations Command website: "The scale of the project was enormous and was in danger of over-stretching the capacity of the UK's civil engineering industry. From late summer of 1943 onwards three hundred firms were recruited from around the country employing 40,000 to 45,000 personnel at the peak. Men from trades and backgrounds not associated with the construction industry were drafted in and given crash courses appropriate to their work. Their task was to construct 212 caissons ranging from 1672 tons to 6044 tons, 23 pier-heads and 10 miles of floating roadway."

Phoenix' concrete caissons, part of the Mulberry artificial harbour,
being constructed in Surrey Docks in Rotherhithe, London, 17 April 1944. Imperial War Museum H37607

The component that was manufactured at South Dock was the caisson, or Phoenix, used to form the breakwaters. The
contract for building twelve Phoenix B sections in Rotherhithe was given to
John Mowlem, a civil engineering company, in late 1943. The Phoenix units
were airtight cases made of concrete and steel that were open at the
bottom. Although they look fairly boxy, they were shaped at bow and stern ends to resemble barges on the grounds that they would have to be sea-worthy both when being towed and when in position. They were designed to float and were fitted with air-cocks so
that they could be lowered
evenly to rest on the sea-bed. Eight were to be built at South Dock, four at Russia Dock (also on Rotherhithe) as well as another six at East India Dock on the north of the Thames. South Dock was turned into a dry dock by Mowlems, who drained the dock, sealing it with a concrete barrier at the lock and blocking the cut that connected South Dock to Greenland Dock. The base of the dock was then covered with 6ft of rubble to ready it for the
construction of concrete sections of the Mulberry units. South Dock must have been a strange sight with no water in it. The above photograph from the Imperial War Museum shows what the units looked like when under construction at
South Dock.It is a truly spectacular scene! The photo has been taken the eastern edge of Rotherhithe, looking over the Phoenix units towards Greenland Dock, which is still filled with water and has a ship in dock. The sheer number of cranes that serviced both docks is impressive - many of the crane tracks still exist but there's nothing like seeing a photograph of what it was all like in action.

Surviving Phoenix units at Portland Harbour

On the 17th March 1944 the Phoenix sections under construction at South Dock had all been completed. Steelyard Cut, which still links South Dock with Greenland Dock, was re-opened, the dock was refilled via
Greenland Dock, and the Phoenix sections were floated out first through the cut, with only 9 inches of clearance and then out onto the Thames
through Greenland Dock's entrance lock, and transported downriver and out to British coastal destinations. Each was fitted for the journey with a small crew, a temporary cabin and an anti-aircraft gun, which came into use when a German bomber flew low to take a closer look and was fired upon. Many of the caissons were initially sunk to hide them from German spy planes, and were re-floated, with some difficulty, when ready for deployment in France.

My brief article has looked at Mulberry Harbours through a Rotherhithe-centric lens, and the main sources for the post are listed here, but if you are interested in Mulberry Harbours and want to find out more, there is a lot more information about them all over the web, and of course in some excellent books about the Second World War.

This post, which has updates on the New Southwark Plan Preferred option, the Revised Canada Water Area Action Plan, The Lavender Pumphouse, the Ship York and the South Dock boatyard has been moved onto a website dedicated to SE16 planning issues and can now be found at the following website address:

Welcome

Site Menu

A History of South Dock

I have assembled all my posts concerning the history and heritage of South Dock into a website of its own, which seemed to be a requirement following the announcement of the St George's Wharf development that will overshadow the South Dock area. It can be found at:http://southdockse16.wordpress.com

Aberdovey Londoner

In July 2018 I moved to Aberdovey on the mid Welsh coast, and began a blog there. It is a very different place and experiences are all completely novel. If you are interested, you can find it at https://aberdoveylondoner.wordpress.com

Port of London Study Group

If you are interested in the archaeology and history of the Port of London you may be interested in the Port of London Study Group, a self-guided research group that operates out of the Museum of London. Find out more at http://portoflondonstudy.wordpress.com.

British Transport Treasures

This blog is run with considerable assistance from excellent local history publications written by Stuart Rankin. His works are my starting point for all history posts. Stuart has set up a website, called British Transport Treasures, that specializes in out of print publications which can be downloaded as PDFs that can be saved and printed. Out of print publications are a nightmare for anyone attempting local history research unless they have access to a specialist library and archives. British Transport Treasures is expanding fast with an ever-growing catalogue of titles. Each of the publications is described with a magazine-style short review to explain the scope of the content, and provided with a preview of the cover and first page. There is a nominal cost for each, to cover the costs of hosting and running the site, and 5p per item sold is donated to Help For Heroes. I am a massive fan of the site and what it is attempting to do, and as it has a number of publications concerning Rotherhithe I have drawn attention to some of them here.